Independent journalism on water, public health and the environment
WATERSHED partners with national and international media to run high impact investigations covering all issues affecting the freshwater and marine environment.
Day Zero, sometimes known as the Jaws of Death, is the time when a city or country runs out of drinking water. When the taps run dry and the standpipes or tankers are deployed.
Tensions are growing between the government, the water sector and its regulators over the management of England’s water supplies, as the Environment Agency warns of a potential widespread drought next year.
Vast swathes of Europe’s water reserves are drying up, a new analysis using two decades of satellite data reveals, with freshwater storage shrinking across southern and central Europe, from Spain and Italy to Poland and parts of the UK.
The Environment Agency has released England’s latest bathing water classifications and Defra says that 87% of bathing waters are rated Excellent or Good, but the devil is in the detail.
The drinking water watchdog for England and Wales has ordered companies to act after “forever chemicals” linked to cancer and other conditions were found in untreated water sources at levels it said “could constitute a potential danger to human health”.
Britain is facing mounting pressure to ban mercury dental fillings, one of the few countries yet to prevent the practice, as new data reveals alarming contamination levels in the nation’s fish and shellfish.
Exclusive: Environment Agency not testing for ‘forever chemical’ made by factory despite evidence of emissions. Regulators measuring “forever chemicals” near a Lancashire chemicals plant are not testing for a substance made by the company itself, despite evidence it could be reprotoxic and is being emitted in large volumes. To read in full, click on the […]
London’s desalination plant has cost more than half a billion pounds since 2010 and has run only five times, delivering 7.2bn litres of drinking water, roughly seven days of London’s typical daily demand. Now Thames Water is planning a new £500m project to tackle drought in the capital. The Thames Gateway desalination plant at Beckton, built for […]
England is spreading farmland with sewage sludge contaminated by 750,000 tonnes of landfill leachate each year. Packed with PFAS, dioxins, microplastics and more, the toxins survive weak treatment and outdated regulation, threatening soils, rivers, crops, food safety and public health.
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